U.S. State Department knocks Google chairman’s planned North Korea trip

The United States State Department is not amused by Google (GOOG) chairman Eric Schmidt’s plan to travel to North Korea. Even though Schmidt plans to go to North Korea with former New Mexico governor Bill Richardson as a private citizen and not a representative of the U.S. government, a State Department spokesperson on Thursday said that the timing of the trip wasn’t “helpful,” according to Reuters. The State Department has made its views known to both Schmidt and Richardson, although apparently neither has decided that Foggy Bottom’s concerns warrant canceling their travel plans yet.